Now, if I'm Al I see the hand-writing on wall too so I'm going out in blaze of Borges-glory. Each and every time I see Brady without the headset I'm calling a tackle over stretch play out on an I set. Every time. I dont care what the down or distance is, I'm calling it. And I'm making sure that I keep Fitz in the game at all costs too. When the headset comes back on I'll go back to calling other plays but just to fuck with Brady & Brandon I'm doing that.

First, I love that he wrote this. But multiple excalmation points and ALL CAPS are high school shit. Maybe that's his audience. And this on Borges: much like Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, he has always excelled when his personnel rocked, and suffered when it didn't. Ebbs and flows, bros, ebbs and flows. I was around for AC and Wrangler I, and john Cooper and Gary Moeller and RR. I will be at The Game Saturday with my Columbus, OH uncles, and my UM student younger brother and sister and my 12 year old kid. Life is so fucking good it's not fair. We are privleged to have such an awesome program to root for, and no matter what current perception is, the people runnign the offense are not stupid. They are human. How about we all take a deep breath,thank God we are not fucking orphans living on the streets of some subsharan african nation sucking dick to eat, and enjoy these last few weeks of college football? fuck me. The trolls are killing this site,compelling even DB to respond. Wow.

To the extent Brandon felt he needed to give Hoke a vote of confidence, it seems like it should have been way shorter. Along the lines of:

"Hoke is the right guy for the job. We're not doing as well at this juncture as I, or M supporters, would like. But getting this program to where it belongs is a process that takes awhile. A big part of that is recruiting and we've done a great job there from California to Peppersville, err,e I mean NJ. Brady Hoke is the right man for the job and will ultimately be remembered as one of the great coaches at Michigan."

Throwing RR and Borges under the bus by omission was, imo, was unnecessary and classless.

The past is history, the future's a mystery. Being alive in this moment is a gift--that's why they call it the present.

RR got blasted by the bus years ago. DB has no duty to say anything about RR - I wouldn't read anything more into it. Also, what did you expect DB to say about Borges? He said good things about the defense because it has improved significantly. Can't say the same about the O.

For all we know Hoke will fire Borges. Brandon responded this way because he uses social media, this isn't the 1980's. As far as not including RR, why should he? The guy was TERRIBLE, was making ZERO progress, the offense was good against terrible teams and HORRIBLE against good defenses. The guy was responsible for us being on probation, whether it was right or not, it happened. Our best season was one like this season, beating bad teams and for the most part, winning against bad opponents.

By continuing to e-mail compliance asking for clarification and they kept slow-playing him? By having newspaper reporters take statements from players and completely redefining the context? Stretch it to make it fit, I guess.

I have no love for Brandon, and I've criticized some of his decisions many times here. However, some of the reactions to his statement are fainting-couch hysteria.

It might be classless and petty, but it shouldn't be a surprise that he omitted RR when mentioning the 2011 team, considering that he fired RR. His statement could have been one-third of its length and said all the stuff that was necessary, but this is a guy who has a blog.

If he hadn't pointedly omitted Borges, or had praised Mattison and Borges both, or hadn't mentioned assistants at all, a large contingent here would be howling in outrage that Brandon doesn't care about how bad Borges is.

If Brandon never attended practice and never attended coaches meetings, there would be a sizeable number of people here who would be getting the vapors over his "lack of involvement" in the football program.

If Brandon had not issued a statement in support of Hoke at a time when one of the prime recruits appears to be wavering because he's being told by opposing coaches who are still recruiting him that Hoke's demise is imminent, then Brandon would be accused of not supporting Hoke at a critical juncture.

If Brandon had issued a short, one-paragraph statement in support of Hoke, then people here would have interpreted it as terse sign of non-support, and would have gone apeshit accordingly.

David Brandon did exactly the same thing that hundreds of GMs and ADs have done over the decades: fire the guy he inherited who was struggling and unpopular with many of the fans, and brought in his guy, who he's now defending. What a fucking shock.

What all this boils down to for me is that when the team is struggling, there is literally nothing that an AD, head coach, or assistant can say that won't be attacked with throbbing-vein, bulging-eyed rage filled to the brim with self-righteous entitlement by some portion of the fanbase. That's exactly what happened while RR was here, and the same thing is going on now with Hoke.

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." — Mencken

We have the right leader, and despite the fact we have lost three very close games (and WE ARE ALL feeling the pain that comes from it!) the consistency will come. There have been speed bumps along the way and unforeseen obstacles that have hindered our progress this season, but the resiliency of this team has been remarkable."

And only because the style of writing coupled with the use of ALL CAPS reminded me ot this (without the comic sans font of course):

You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"

What I posted was Dan Gilbert's "open letter" to Lebron after The Decision. It was widly mocked for it's tone, the way it was written (lots of ALL CAPS), the Comic Sans font he chose and the general ridiculousness of the content. Which was 100% wrong by the way.

To me, DB is typical of your average MBA from a high-profile school: arrogant beyond belief and completely convinced that he is always the smartest guy in whatever room he's in. I know people who've had interactions with him in the course of their jobs at UM, and I'll just say that I'm thankful I don't have to work with or for him.

However, that doesn't mean that everything he does or says is deserving of the sort of spittle-flecked rage that's normal here at MGoBlog.

It's now a common meme that the fact that he attends coaches' meetings and practices automatically means that he's an intrusive meddler, but does anybody here really know exactly what the nature of his participation typically is? If he's interrupting the coaches demanding explanations during meetings, or suggesting that they run certain plays or use certain players, then he's an intrusive meddler. If he's simply there watching and observing in the background, or watching film, that's not meddling, at least in my book. Given that he's a former player, it seems silly to me to begrudge him the desire to be present during some of the activities of the program he clearly loves. I also think it's dumb from a management standpoint to take the view that a senior manager in his position should never attend in person any of the activities led by the people who are responsible to him. Just because John Bacon says coaches from other schools are expressing amazement that DB is doing this isn't justification in my eyes for taking a trip to A2 Torch and Pitchfork, if for no other reason that coaches from other schools have a vested interest in perpetuating the notion that Brandon is an intrusive meddler that no coach or player would want to have anything to do with.

If you want to make the argument that he's probably got better things to do with his time than attend meetings or practices, I'd agree, but that's not the same thing as meddling, and it also begs the question of just how many practices and meetings he's attending. Is it every one, or just some of them? If Mary Sue Coleman occasionally attends a random lecture on campus, does that automatically mean she's meddling? It depends on what she's doing while she's there, and how often she's doing it.

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." — Mencken

You've been a voice of reason in this thread, IMO. I would have liked DB to leave out the reference to "Carr's seniors" - and I'm sure everyone would have edited the statement one way or another - but I don't think anyone can read the post and not believe that Brandon has every intention of bringing back Coach Hoke, and that was his fundamental message.

All in all, he's doing a great job supporting and promoting the long-established values at the University of Michigan - winning with integrity, including academic integrity. He is a major improvement over our previous AD (did BM ever write a blog in support of our recruiting efforts?).

I do not agree with everything that Brandon has done, as I consider myself more conservative and a traditionalist, but there's no doubt in my mind he's the right guy for the job. If you don't agree, who would you replace him with, and why?

My biggest gripe with DB is that he watches film with the coaches. What other AD does this? If he ends up firing Hoke in a couple of years what coach would really want to deal with that? Michigan is not a destination job. This is part of why Michigan is stuck in mediocrity and may never break that cycle.

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."

Just because we didn't get Harbaugh (who was headed for the NFL) doesn't validate your statement. I bet 75 of the 115 coaches in Div 1 would rather be at a program that 1. Pays as well 2. Has the Tradition 3. Has the national exposure (I could list about 20 more...). IMHO Michigan is the definition of a destination job.

I respectfully disagree. Although some people have speculated on who DB approached we don't know for sure. Was Hoke "the only choice", or was he the only one who would take the job? The recent infighting in the athletic department doesn't help. I am not sure why a coach would want to come here and put up with all that.

"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."

I think Brandon has done a disservice to Michigan from the beginning. The decision to fire RR after three years was foolish. The way it was handled showed inexperience. Hiring Hoke was not a stellar move. The mascot trial balloon angered Michigan traditionalists. He is on record stating that he would like to have advertising within the stadium.

He has greatly and unnecessarily expanded the marketing staff, when that money could be spent on more productive things.

He wasted thousands of dollars on skywriting "Go Blue" over MSU's stadium - absolutely a bush league move.

And now, naturally, he is supporting the guy he hired who isn't doing very well with the talent he has on hand.

Hey, as long as we are stuck with this staff, I hope they do very well. I'd love to be wrong.

You ask who'd be a better AD - how about the Louisville AD? Look how well their programs are doing with far less in the way of resources. There are lots of good ADs out there with real athletic program experience.

1. What about a blog post do you folks - on thos blog - not get? It's written in the style of a blog because it's, well, a blog post. As Don put very well, stop acting like 50s-era priviledged white housewives exposed to anything outside of what they expect.

2. Why should DB say a word about RR? Since being canned, RR has acted like an immature teenager and ran his mouth over and over. He has implicitly trashed DB whenever given a media opportunity to do so. Who knows what he has said to colleagues - but we can safely assume its much worse than what he has said in public. Chosing to ignore RR was DB's only option.

3. DB is not just responding to Peppers. Stop with this simple-minded inversion of a symptom and the problem. He is responding to ESPN and all the other media outlets that have Hoke on the hotseat. Peppers is a symptom of the media's attemtp to generate chaos and ensuing clicks. He is responding to a need to counter that chaos with a sense of stability, so as to avoid symptoms emerging on the recruiting trail.

I commend him for it. But how does this solve the offensive problem long-term? I don't think getting a new coordinator for offense solves problems unless the scheme and tempo is changed. We cannot be this all-huddle, all the time plodding, i-form team anymore. Doesn't work. Too predictable and only ensures wins against maybe Perdue. I know there are some who will say "well, Wisconsin does it and does it well" but we're not them. We're not Alabama and we don't have their offensive line. We may never have it.

Even Ohio State goes up-tempo. Nearly every successful team goes up-tempo, has a dual-threat QB, and uses the width of the field. Obviously the QB is such a huge part of this and unfortunately, Gardner has gotten worse and gotten injured. That is, of course, on the O coordinator. But it is also on the overall scheme and this fundamental view that "three yards and a cloud of dust" will cut it nowdays. I guess if we want to beat Michigan State 12-10 every 4 years, it does.

I may not like every word but I applaud Brandon for getting in front of all the hot seat crap. Perception becomes reality and being proactive here and being a cheerleader for his guy is the right thing for the program.

We know Hoke can recruit. We know he can assemble a defense under Mattison. We now know Brandon is firing shots across the bow of the USS Borges. Let's fix what's broken and get behind this team.

I never really considered Hoke on the chopping block, he should get his 5 years at least, the same way I felt RR should have. So voicing support for him is smart PR.

As far as Mattison, he is a terrific coach, getting rid of him would be a massive setback.

In my humble assessment, Borges needs to go OR you need to hire a true QB coach who can develop players.

If Borges is on the way out, I can't think of anyone off hand as a replacement BUT would hope Hoke would look at an OC with a proven record of developing QBs...and everyone else on the offense for that matter.

Furiously rereading the statement. Brandon omission says alot. Wonder if Brady had a chance to review the statement before it was released. If not, nothing better than your AD throwing one of your coaches under the bus. Poor Al will now have to answer questions at every press conference as to why he wasn't mentioned and what does that mean for him going forward. If the decision is made, this statement could have been released Sunday with the news that Big Al is no longer the OC at Michigan. Actually feel sad for Borges. You don't do this 2 days before your biggest game of the year. Big Al will be game planning his next job not game planning for Ohio State.

But when a guy is so clearly already under the bus, not mentioning him is also not pulling him out. Sort of like, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it. DB has nice things to say about Hoke and Mattison. Saying nothing says a lot. This is a classic dance that management has to do with the public. Borges could theorticallysuddenly become competent and M could finish 9-4, heck if he did, we'd probably forgive his stark failures. And, DB would not have burnt any bridges, or created any self fulfilling failure prophesies. Unfortunately, it is pretty plain to see how this will likely end. And we will most likely have a new OC. If not, it gets even more crowded under the bus.

the fan base has been clamoring for his removal. If he mentions Borges has security, people like Brian would definitely not go on Saturday and make next season a total disaster regarding ticket sales and renewals. . .

I thought that was the case also, but before reading this letter. I think Funk is gone no matter what happens Saturday or in the bowl game. I am also now skeptical as to whether Borges can save his job or not.

Here's my concern with what Brandon had to say (this may have been covered, but I'm a day late and don't want to read all of the posts in here.

Brandon says he needs to give Hoke more time because he's implementing a new system and that takes time. Look at Harbaugh, look at Saban... So what was Rich Rod doing then? Why didn't he get more time? He, over the life of his time here definitely tanked the system, but he was getting better. I'm not entirely sure that Rich Rod wouldn't have had the same result in 2011. Hoke on the other hand has progressed backward each year. I don't disagree that it takes time, but try to sell the fans that you're dedicated to this guy because you feel it's imperative that you give him a fair shot when you didn't give the last guy the same shot.

it's because he's his coach, he's going to hire him. RichRod wasn't his and he felt no obligation to give him time. I personally don't think the Rich Rod was the right fit for Michigan. Could he have won here, yes. But, personally myself I had a hard time getting behind him. I'm proud of Brady's integrity and honesty especially when it comes to recruiting. I have a feeling he has a major decision to make in regards to keeping Borges. This potentially will be the biggest decision of his career. Since he will not be running the offense, whoever he has in charge is very important. It's now a wait and see.

I know it's beating a dead horse, but personally I don't blame everything on Borges. I'm not crazy with all of his play calls, but look how much Devin has been sacked this year and the lack of a run game. As a coordinator, what are you supposed to call when you know you probably can't get more than 1 or 2 yards on a run play, if not a loss, and Gardner is probably going to get sacked if he drops back? Borges has been successful throughout his career and has shown an ability to adapt to different styles of offense based no personnel, so if's not like he's forgotten how to coach an offense. I'm more inclined to blame youth on the offensive line and a lack of cohesion. If come next year we do not see a jump in performance from the young interior line guys, I'd be more critical of Hoke and Funk than Borges.

I hate this sort of high school shit. Borges deserves everyone's support. If he eventually gets canned, he still deserves our respect. Our man is doing his best. I'm not pleased either, but he is a hard worker, he has hoke's support, and the players too.

I've been a long time lurker on this blog, after watching Oregon run a two minute drill like its their normal offense made me register just so I could throw out the name Scott Frost for OC.

I know there are hard feelings toward Nebraska, but he has learned under Chip Kelly, and I think after tomorrow we will all see the spread once again is the way to go.

You have a great spread offense especially with Devin running it, combined with Mattison's defense. I think we have what we need. Is that something that Hoke will go for? I guess that is the real question, is he too attached to running old Michigan offense?

While I agree that Borges job situation is probably looking iffy, I think DB's comment about knowing there are areas which need to be addressed and improved could equally apply to Funk. We're looking at two years of pretty poor line play.